One of the questions I was asking in one of my previous articles, Lafite in China – The 8 Strategy, is about to be answered. Remember, one month ago, Domaines Barons de Rothschild announced that all bottles and magnums of the 2008 vintage would feature the figure 8 (ba – 八) which sounds similar to the word “wealth” (fa – 发) in Chinese. Following this announcement on 27th October 2010, prices had soared. The question I was asking was :

“Château Mouton Rothschild that has been featuring an artwork on its labels since 1946 is said to follow the move and asked a Chinese artist to design the 2008 label. Will it have the same effect though?”

As Mouton Rothschild has just revealed its wine label for 2008 vintage – confirming the information that a Chinese artist was the designer of this so particular vintage, two days ago – prices have increased as they had for Chateau Lafite Rothschild. Even if the move is less impressive than one month ago (prices went up 20% overnight) we can still conclude that this marketing strategy geared towards the Chinese market that I called “the 8 strategy”, is really working as demand in both cases is skyrocketing.

There is a difference though. Lafite announcement was quite a surprise last month and that is why prices took 20% overnight whereas it was already common knowledge that Xu Lei, the artist painter was about to design the 2008 vintage bottle of Mouton Rothschild before the announcement, two days ago. Prices have increased within a longer period but in the same proportions.

The price “en primeurs” of a bottle of Mouton Rothschild was €163/bottle. The information that Xu Lei was about to design the 2008 label appeared in late 2009 and made the price to increase to €400/bottle. The 2008 vintage is now trading around €1200/bottle following many weeks of speculation.

Let me now present you the artist and the label.

Xu Lei was born in Nantong, a city in the eastern province of Jiangsu. He moved to Nanjing to study painting at Nanjing’s Arts university and graduated in 1984. He now lives in Beijing as the art director of the Today Art Museum and a fellow of the Art Academy of China.

His drawing for Mouton involves the classic theme of the château’s First Growth emblem the ram, perched on top of a rock.

Nice work. But it seems that he just took up a quite famous painting on his own. What do you think ?

This definitely marks the beginning of a long love story between the Chinese people and wine.

It is interesting to see that wine is becoming more and more popular in China, and it won’t be long before China becomes the main market for Bordeaux.

Some talented entrepreneurs like Gregory Moulinet of ROIBrand [http://www.roibrand.com] have understood it, and as a French Brand Specialist based in Beijing, there was nothing more natural than having him start a “wine division” in his China based Brand Consultancy.

More and more Chateaux will adapt their branding and packaging to the Chinese market, and the ones who will start now will be guaranteed the greater awareness, and will become the references of French wines in China!

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The Wine Market in China

This information website about the Wine Market in China aims to provide information on different topics such as: Wine Distribution in China, Wine Marketing in China, Wine Education in China. If you work in the wine industry in China and want to share some information and/or express your views about the growing demand for wine in China, please feel free to contact us or comment.